For Release: Thursday, January 08, 2015
NEW ENGLAND INFORMATION OFFICE: Boston, Mass.
Technical information: (617) 565-2327 [email protected]
Media contact:
(617) 565-2326 [email protected]
15-6-BOS
www.bls.gov/regions/new-england
Unemployment in the Boston Area by Division - October 2014
Unemployment Rates Declined in all Divisions over the Year
In October, the Nashua division reported the lowest unemployment rate in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy,
Mass.-N.H. Metropolitan New England City and Town Area (NECTA), at 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown noted that the LawrenceMethuen-Salem division had the highest unemployment rate at 8.0 percent. Among the nine divisions in the
Boston area, seven had jobless rates below the 5.5-percent U.S. average. (See chart 1. The Technical Note at
the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally
adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)
In October 2014 all nine divisions in the Boston area had lower unemployment rates than in October 2013.
Eight divisions had a decrease greater than the national rate of decline (-1.5 percentage point) led by
Lawrence-Methuen-Salem (-3.0 points). The jobless rate decline in the Framingham division matched that
of the nation over the year.
Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, the Boston-CambridgeQuincy, Mass,-N.H. Metropolitan NECTA and its divisions, not seasonally adjusted
Unemployment rates
Area
United States.........................................................
Massachusetts ..................................................
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass,-N.H.
Metropolitan NECTA.......................................
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass. Division ....
Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Mass.
Division ...........................................................
Framingham, Mass. Division ..........................
Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, Mass,N.H. Division..................................................
Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, Mass,-N.H.
Division ...........................................................
Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Mass,-N.H.
Division ...........................................................
Peabody, Mass. Division ................................
Taunton-Norton-Raynham, Mass. Division.....
New Hampshire.................................................
Nashua, N.H,-Mass. Division .........................
October 2012
October 2013
Net change from
October 2014
October 2012 to
October 2014
October 2013 to
October 2014
7.5
6.3
7.0
6.9
5.5
5.1
-2.0
-1.2
-1.5
-1.8
5.9
6.3
4.7
-1.2
-1.6
5.5
6.1
4.5
-1.0
-1.6
6.9
7.4
5.6
-1.3
-1.8
5.0
5.6
4.1
-0.9
-1.5
6.3
6.5
4.7
-1.6
-1.8
10.5
11.0
8.0
-2.5
-3.0
6.6
7.0
5.1
-1.5
-1.9
6.5
6.5
5.2
6.9
6.9
5.0
5.1
5.2
3.6
-1.4
-1.3
-1.6
-1.8
-1.7
-1.4
5.4
5.4
3.8
-1.6
-1.6
NOTE: State and local area data are preliminary for the most recent month
Jobless rates in all nine of the Boston area divisions were below their October 2012 levels. Only LawrenceMethuen-Salem (-2.5 percentage points) had a decrease greater than the national rate of decline (-2.0
points). Framingham had the smallest rate of decline since October 2012 at 0.9 percentage point.
Unemployment rate declines in the other seven divisions ranged from -1.0 percentage point in BostonCambridge-Quincy to -1.6 point in both the Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury and Nashua divisions.
Technical Note
This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment
Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor.
Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as
those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample
survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe
for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. Employed persons are those
who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or
worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job
from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management
dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference
week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending
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with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not
be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed
persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.
Method of estimation. The LAUS program is a hierarchy of non-survey methodologies for indirectly
estimating employment and unemployment in states and local areas. Statewide data are produced through a
modeling technique that uses estimates of payroll jobs from the Current Employment Statistics survey and
unemployment insurance claims counts from the state workforce agencies to mitigate volatility in the direct
CPS tabulations of employment and unemployment, respectively. Data for labor market areas, such as
metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions, are produced through a building block approach and adjusted
proportionally to state model-based totals. Data for counties within labor market areas are produced through
a disaggregation technique. A detailed description of the LAUS estimation procedures is available in chapter
4 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch4.htm.
Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end
of each year, usually implemented with January estimates. The adjusted estimates reflect updated
population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model
reestimation.
Area definitions: The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H. Metropolitan New England City and
Town Area (NECTA) includes nine NECTA divisions--subdivisions of the larger NECTA which function
as distinct social, economic, and cultural areas within the larger region. The NECTA divisions that compose
the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH NECTA include: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA, BrocktonBridgewater-Easton, MA, Framingham, MA, Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH, LawrenceMethuen-Salem, MA-NH, Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH, Nashua, NH-MA, Peabody, MA,
Taunton-Norton-Raynham, MA, and select cities and towns within.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice
phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.
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